SATV, kathmandu, Feb.19 - By leasing fallow land left unused by others and growing indigenous sugarcane, a young man in Baitadi has earned Rs. 500,000 from selling jaggery.
With nearly 75 per cent of villagers migrating elsewhere, the productive use of abandoned land has brought him unexpected success.
Deepak Karki of Binasau village in Dasharathchand Municipality-4 has undertaken sugarcane cultivation across 40 ropanis by using his own fallow land and leasing unused plots left by villagers.
Karki, who also serves as chief of the municipality’s agriculture section, has been producing jaggery commercially alongside his regular job.
Located close to the district headquarters, Binasau village has largely emptied due to damage to crops by wild animals such as monkeys, wild boars and porcupines.
As farming became difficult, about 75 per cent of residents migrated elsewhere. Karki, however, leased the vacant land and has been producing around one metric tonne of jaggery annually from sugarcane.
He said sugarcane is crushed from January to April to produce about one metric tonne of jaggery. Local jaggery sells at Rs. 350 per kg, and even this level of production has not been enough to meet market demand.
“After office hours, mornings, evenings and even holidays are spent in the sugarcane fields,” Karki said. “When I am away, my father, mother and wife help. Along with sugarcane, we are also growing vegetables commercially.”
He said the need for more land arose after he decided to take traditional sugarcane farming in a commercial direction. He began leasing fallow land and cultivating sugarcane five years ago.
Compared to traditional wooden crushers, installing an electric juice-extracting machine has made the work easier. For cooking the jaggery, 50-litre copper vessels are used, and the juice is boiled for about four hours to prepare the final product.
Jaggery cooked in copper vessels is also used in Ayurvedic medicine. Local traditional healer Bhojraj Bhatt said Ayurvedic liquid medicines such as Ashiv Arishta are made using local jaggery.
Karki’s father, Bir Singh Karki, said starting sugarcane farming when hill settlements are empty has also brought challenges. This year, wild boars damaged the sugarcane fields, causing losses worth around Rs. 150,000. To protect the fields, fencing with green netting was installed this year taking a bank loan.
“We started sugarcane farming to send a message to those who leave the village thinking nothing is possible in the hills. Compared to other crops, sugarcane suffers less damage from monkeys and porcupines,” he said.
